Off the Fence Continues Post-MIPTV Sales

BRISTOL, May 1: Off the
Fence has clinched further sales following this year’s MIPTV, including deals
with Animal Planet in the U.S. and History Channel in the U.K.

History Channel in the
U.K. picked up Crossings: Jackie Chan, a one-hour program about the life of the Chinese acrobat turned
Hollywood actor, and The Curse of the Elephant Man, an hour-long documentary about the case of a
disfigured person.

Ocean Voyagers was taken on by Animal Planet in the U.S. The
one-hour documentary, narrated by Meryl Streep, follows a mother and baby whale
on their journey from the South Pacific to the Antarctic.

Off the Fence also closed
a deal for a 100-hour package with Belgacom, Belgium’s VOD platform, and a
14-hour package with Viasat in Scandinavia. Greek network ERT acquired nine
hours of programming, including the 5×1-hour program Cinema Asia and the hour-long Shaolin—Journey to the
West. Finnish pubcaster YLE took
on the 13×30-minute animal series Young & Wild, while Italy’s Cult acquired four titles,
including Changemakers, which
features people who believe they can change the world.

Over in Asia, Off the
Fence sold the 6×1-hour doc series Man Made Marvels to PTS in Taiwan and Korea’s Every Show. Chinese
network Golden Universal snapped up Big Cat Doctor and Africa’s Super Seven. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s PT Cakrawala Pesona Jaya
Film acquired 10 hours of programming, including the hour-long film Return
of the Prime Predators, which
looks at conservation efforts at a nature reserve in South Africa.

Bo Stehmeier, the head of
sales and co-production at Off the Fence, said: “OTF is renowned for
high-quality factual programming around the world and, as sales from this
year’s MIPTV demonstrate, the demand for this style of programming continues to
grow. We have had a record number of sales, and we are selling to more
territories than ever before.”

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski